2 vs the world

2011-03-26T18:18:00.002-06:00

2011-03-26T18:08:00.002-06:00

2011-03-26T18:01:00.002-06:00

New Blog

2010-08-28T03:17:00.001-06:00

Started a new blog for the mapping features, follow us there:
http://travelpod.com/members/2vstheworld

It's wedding season

2010-03-15T18:21:00.005-06:00

We went to Nampa for my brother's wedding and all got food poisoning, yay! A torn ACL and barfing my lungs out, what a trip.

Oh past self, the things I wish I could warn you about!

Monica and Kaydince rode with us and the horribleness that is food poisoning is apparently no respector of persons, poor Kaydince got it too.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2010-03-15T18:13:00.004-06:00

We went to Bear Lake for Valentine's Day and went skiing at Beaver Mountain.

This was us naively thinking the day was going great!

This is me an hour later after being brought down the mountain by ski patrol! It hurt worse than I was letting on.

Turns out I tore my ACL, happy valentines day!

Dataprom

2010-03-15T18:10:00.002-06:00

My work had a "prom" rather than a Christmas party, I took one picture and won two movie passes. The end.

Ariel's Birthday

2010-01-17T13:41:00.005-07:00

We went tubing for my birthday and it was tons of fun!

Rocking my new sunglasses and Jake pulling off his U hat!

Some Christmas Pictures

2010-01-17T13:34:00.001-07:00

Kaydince decided to become a computer analyst in the North Pole.

Us with Kaydince and the build a bear (bunny) we got her for Christmas.

Best Christmas Present Ever!

2010-01-01T14:17:00.003-07:00

We went on a cruise two weeks before Christmas this year, it was so warm! Highlights of the trip: the beaches in Roatan, Honduras, reading a book lazily by the ocean/pool, eating eating eating, getting a tan in December, and cave tubing in Belize!

Halloween Fun 2

2009-11-01T18:14:00.005-07:00

Halloween day Jake and I went to see Thriller. I have been wanting to see this play/singing/dancing extravaganza for five years and we finally went this year! It was funny, exciting, and a little scary all at once. Even Jake liked it! This is us with one of the zombies after the show.

After Thriller we went to the Utah v. Wyoming game that we expected to be a Wyoming butt whooping. However it turned into a nail biter, but the U pulled it out in the end. Go Utes!

Halloween Fun!

2009-11-01T18:04:00.004-07:00

Kaydince came to my work on Friday to trick or treat, but her parents dressed her as a BYU Cheerleader. That kind of costume could not stand in U territory so I made a slight change to her costume and it was a huge hit.

I was a fortune teller, bc in real life that is my job!

Winter Has a Few Perks

2009-11-01T17:51:00.003-07:00

It's cold and I don't like it! But winter has a few perks this year. Jake is finally almost done working crazy hours in crazy places because it's too cold to pave. Yay! And that outrageously priced bathing suit I have been eyeing at Victoria's Secret all year is finally on clearance!

10k & Half

2009-11-01T17:34:00.004-07:00

Jake and I had a lot of fun at the Boise Prison Break 10k and Half Marathon! It was super cold, but with a fighter plane flyover and a prison guard gauntlet to open the race it was very exciting. The first mile ran around the outside of the prison yard, luckily I didn't see any prisoners! For pictures: Ariel and Jake. Jake had his number on the back of his shirt so his one picture we have found so far got stuck in the lost and found.

Race Prep

2009-10-20T20:33:00.003-06:00

Jake and I have been preparing for the Boise Prison Break Half Marathon and 10k for four weeks. And now race day is almost here! Saturday is the big day, cheer us on!

Flogging Molly Birthday

2009-09-28T18:34:00.003-06:00

I got Jake tickets to one of his favorite bands for his birthday. Too bad they were coming a full month after his birthday had passed! Oh well! We went to the concert on Friday night and the Ute game on Saturday so it was a fun weekend.

My hair-a constant struggle

2009-09-28T18:29:00.005-06:00

I was extremely sick of my looooong hair and it was all broken and gross so I took this picture to the stylist:

This is what I ended up with:

Are they even remotely similar? I think not! Is my hair a good 3 inches shorter than the photo, well you really can't tell bc the bottom of the photo is cut off, but it is!

Mount Timpanogas

2009-09-28T18:18:00.002-06:00

For six years Jake has wanted to climb Timp and we finally did it! It wasn't me holding us back it was...life! But we finally did it and although my pack was way to heavy, our tent almost fell over multiple times, and it hailed and lighteninged all night we still had fun.

Anderson Family Reunion 2009

2009-09-28T17:49:00.003-06:00

Over Labor Day weekend we went to Anderson Family Reunion 2009. We went up to Huntsville and hung out, floated the little river, played in the lake and in general did nothing. We got a lot of reading done and I won $5 in a card game called 31. It was so nice to have a break! And we took one picture the whole weekend.

My new favorite song

2009-08-30T11:31:00.002-06:00

Zac Brown Band

More CMT Music

More CMT Music Videos

Can You Duet!

2009-08-21T19:03:00.004-06:00

Steel Magnolia, the winners of Can You Duet, played a free show today!! For some reason the show was at 4:30pm so there were not a lot of people, which means I got to sit in the front row!! By myself bc everyone else I knew was working, but it was so fun!

11 Things I Learned From Being Laid Off

2009-08-11T11:32:00.004-06:00

1. Money comes, money goes you just have to deal with it.
2. I am not my job, nor do I ever want to be.
3. Someone who is a jerk to work for is still going to be a jerk when he's kicking your butt out the door. Nothing will change that so why bother trying.
4. Mowing the lawn is really relaxing and hitting the gym is a joy.
5. Being a desperate housewife isn't so bad, I made some amazing food!
6. I love watching bad movies on TV that I would normally never watch.
7. Daytime TV is never, ever to be watched it's bad for you!
8. The Kiterunner made my unemployed life seem great; there are a lot worse things than being laid off.
9. Spending time with Kaydince really was fun and now she LOVES me.
10. Happiness has to come from within.
11. The world is a vampire.

Zuchini galore

2009-07-29T11:40:00.003-06:00

Two days ago (I'm finally getting this blog updated) I was walking outside and saw not one but two huge zuchinis in our garden! (And trust me its a zuchini, I had my doubts at first but it really is a monster zuchini) That plant was only planted about 5 weeks ago so I'm a little amazed! But now I have to use two huge zuchinis! So while I watched the finale of Bachelorette (which I loved, bc I was rooting for Ed from the beginning!) I grated the zuchinis and made zuchini bread and zuchini brownies. Both delicious and so moist! Love summer gardens!

Kenny, Kenny, Kenny!

2009-07-28T13:16:00.004-06:00

Kenny wearing a University of Utah hat!

July 23 Kenny Chesney, the 9 time (something like that) entertainer of the year, graced Salt Lake with a concert! Lady Antebellum was the first act and they were okay. From our seats they were like ants so without the screens on it wasn't too exciting. Maybe they don't have a big enough budget to use the big screens, who knows. Miranda Lambert was next with an okay show, she didn't play some of her best songs and kept getting annoyed that we weren't "waking up". Hard to wake up when every song you play is a slow song! Also it was CRAZY HOT! But Kenny Chesney was last and he was great fun! Lived up to his hype, I thought!

Water Babies!

2009-07-28T13:05:00.003-06:00

A few weeks ago I went swimming with Monica and Kaydince. I love swimming and was a little dissapointed Kaydince didn't! She was pretty blase about the whole thing, but I did get her to blow some bubbles. Mostly she just wanted to eat the water and have me blow bubbles on her hand.

Camping

2009-07-28T12:39:00.003-06:00

A few weeks ago we went camping with Bryce and Ashley in Santaquin. We had lots of fun except for the repellent resistant bugs! But on the way home we cracked our oil pan and instead of going home to shower and relax had to spend the rest of the day having the other Andersons drive us around to find a new one. Good thing Jake knows his way around a car to install the new one! And no more canyon drives for our lowrider Passat!

We took one picture the whole trip, on the way home in the car!

3rd of July BBQ!!

2009-07-28T12:27:00.004-06:00

Every year South Salt Lake does a huge 3rd of July fair and fireworks. This year we had a BBQ at our house and finished our stone patio and awning just in time for the big show! Thanks to all who came, it was so much fun!

Two weeks of projects

2009-06-26T11:25:00.001-06:00

The past two weeks have been projects non-stop! But we have gotten a lot done! First up we dug a 4-6" hole 250 sq feet worth to put in our new stone patio. This picture is halfway through the digging. It actually wasn't that bad, we broke it into halves and each half only took 2 hours.

Next we built the Neverending Shed! This shed took a little over SEVEN AND A HALF HOURS to build! Those were not the most fun hours of my life!

And I had my own separate project of sewing some new seat cushions for two of our patio chairs. The chair is a little dusty, but I'm pretty proud of my sewing skills!

My favorite book becomes a movie! (Now don't ruin it!)

2009-06-15T13:10:00.001-06:00

One Year Appendix Free!

2009-06-12T20:19:00.002-06:00

One year ago today I was having an emergency appendectomy! It wouldn't be so bad if my non-appendix self would learn to digest large amounts of protein and sugar-instead of making me change my diet! To celebrate my one year appendix anniversary I made myself a fun fruit pizza!

A funny picture

2009-06-11T20:29:00.002-06:00

I found this picture of Kaydince on my camera and it made me laugh!

Sad, sad day!

2009-05-30T15:54:00.004-06:00

A diet of Cream of Wheat and Powerade is not the most nutritious thing to be eating the week of my Triathlon! So why am I eating strictly Cream of Wheat and drinking Powerade you may ask. Because I am sick and had to miss my second triathlon this morning that I have been training for for 5 months!! Thanks a lot changing seasons! So it is a sad, sad day but I will find another event and this time I won't be sick!

Wheeler Farm

2009-05-30T15:40:00.006-06:00

Wednesday I babysat Kaydince and took her to Wheeler Farm! She had a lot of fun since she loves animals! Mostly dogs, which don't actually live at the farm but sometimes they are there.

She was having fun, despite her expression in this picture.

Later, Kaydince stuffed her face with "nanas" what seems to be her favorite food.

2009-05-20T11:26:00.002-06:00

MySpace Countdowns

Week 8: The week I did nothing and got a lot accomplished

2009-04-30T15:38:00.004-06:00

I have done nothing this week to note but feel like I have gotten so much accomplished! First I have waken up no later than 8:45 AM every morning, it's not much but when I don't really have to be awake it is pretty spectacular, especially since I'm not a morning person. Monday I simply made the conscious decision to step up my gym time because my second triathlon is now in 30 days! Wednesday I took a 2 1/2 hour nap, but hey I was watching Kaydince so it was well deserved! Making it nine hours with a sickish baby is pretty remarkable after all. And today I watched Nights in Rodanthe and cried, cried, cried. I don't care I loved it and have been wanting to see it for months. But on the job front I also had three phone interviews this week and set up two in person interviews for next week; so don't worry I'm still working on the whole job thing. And my favorite thing about this week...I finally watched an entire movie in the cinema room at Gold's Gym! Granted it was Journey to the Center of the Earth, but what can you do?

At least we still have our garbage bailout!

2009-04-19T16:45:00.003-06:00

Amongst the economic turmoil that is happening in the world I am thankful to still qualify for one bailout package, our city hauls away huge piles of garbage from us twice a year! Jake and I spent 9 hours mowing our lawn and raking leaves (that's right leaves that were covered with snow for the last 5 months!), clearing out our garden, and taking all of our renovation mess out to the street. And I have the sunburned face to prove it! We always have the largest pile of garbage in the neighborhood and this year even added a mattress, classy!

Easter 2009

2009-04-19T16:36:00.003-06:00

This Easter we all went to my parents house to celebrate and I realized something kind of strange. There are now more Andersons in the Pratt family than there are Pratts. My sister and I both married Andersons and with her daughter (shown here in her adorable Easter dress) that makes five Andersons and 4 Pratts. Weird how things workout.

But these are the awesomer Andersons, decked out for Easter.

Two Unexpected Positives About Being Laid Off

2009-04-02T15:57:00.002-06:00

After not wearing my super cute Banana Republic suit pants for awhile I broke them out last week to get ready for my first interview. To my surprise they are too big! So my first unexpected positive about being laid off--I had to get my pants taken in! Definitely a first, and I like it!

The last 6 months to a year I have been up at night (waking Jake up and annoying him) yelling and swearing in my sleep! The last 2 months Jake was losing so much sleep he was getting mad at me, but mostly getting mad at my ridiculously stressful/nonsensical job. My subconscious was not happy! However, since being laid off I sleep like a, you guessed it, baby!

Since being laid off 3 weeks ago...

2009-03-28T11:31:00.002-06:00

Number of movies I have watched:
1. Half of Valkyrie
2. Half of Australia
3. The Holiday
4. The Rocker
5. The Forbidden Kingdom
6. Unfaithful

New favorite daytime shows:
1. Semi-homemade with Sandra Lee
2. Arthur, yes the cartoon
3. Rachael Ray

Number of interviews I have had:
2

Number of miles I run a week:
10+

Number of times a day I call Jake:
4+

Number of resumes/applications sent:
50 and counting

Number of photos scanned onto my computer:
124 and counting

Number of times a day I check my email:
at least 8

2009-03-21T10:53:00.001-06:00

Two days after finding out my office was being shut down Jake and I had an oh so fun vacation to Palm Springs! So long Keystone!

Change

2009-01-23T11:37:00.003-07:00

This has been my first week without my office mate, Robyn. And after today I will basically have my own wing at work! It's super quiet, which is sometimes good bc I can hear myself think, but also bad bc I can hear EVERYTHING. There are a lot of things I'd rather not hear. But change is inevitable and I'm super happy for Robyn! Maybe now I'll be more productive and less gossipy. It could be a definite help in my constant quest to be more zen.

Boo on Paul Kruger

2009-01-12T16:05:00.000-07:00

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=635&sid=5292785

Dear Paul Kruger

2009-01-05T11:49:00.002-07:00

Dear Paul Kruger,
Is it wrong to want to name my first child after you? Thanks for making my birthday a memorable one! Can't wait to see what you have in store for next year! GO UTES!

Family Pictures

2009-01-01T11:52:00.001-07:00

Have an Elfing good Christmas!

2008-12-17T12:25:00.003-07:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Christmas Parties!

2008-12-13T10:51:00.003-07:00

This week brought 4 Christmas parties for us! One for Ariel's work, one for Monica's work (and Jake watched Kaydince), Jake's second work party, and one ward party for which I am making funeral potatoes. Who knew the day would come when I would make funeral potatoes!

Monica and Ariel at the Roof.

Jake and Kaydince having a party at home!

Standby for Thanksgiving

2008-12-01T15:06:00.002-07:00

We flew to Tennessee on standby passes for Thanksgiving! Things went fine on the way there, only missed one flight. The way home on the other hand (the Saturday after Thanksgiving)...

I was stuck in the Houston airport for 9 hours by myself while Jake hung out in the Knoxville airport and eventually had to pay $400 to get from Knoxville to Houston!! Once we were both stuck in Houston and we were definitely not getting on the last flight to Salt Lake it was decided there was ZERO chance of us getting from Houston to Salt Lake within the next 3 days. So we were re-routed into Vegas, stayed the night, and drove home the next day. We had ONE CD and no Ipod jacks!!! So Taylor Swift (6+ listens), Jake and I made the drive from Vegas to Salt Lake. Not exactly fun especially since I hate car trips already!!!

Styling our drugstore sunglasses!!
Packing up the most expensive 24 hour rental car ever!!!
Rocking out to Taylor Swift for the millionth time, while Jake did this...

Go Utes!

2008-12-01T14:57:00.003-07:00

Some pictures from the University of Utah v TCU blackout game.

2008-11-13T10:22:00.002-07:00

Another Thanksgiving is almost upon us! Usually I really like Thanksgiving but as of late eating all day and doing not much else is not exactly my cup of tea. So ways to make that better...join the Knoxville track club in a fun run! Jake and I are planning on running the 8K, as a team, in Knoxville on Thanksgiving day. I'm not quite up to running the entire 5 miles myself so we are pulling the team card. We may have some other teammates we will see. And if that doesn't work there is always the day after Thanksgiving shopping!!!

I FINISHED A SPRINT TRI-ATHLON!!

2008-11-09T19:46:00.004-07:00

I completed my first Sprint Tri-athlon Saturday, with a high of 44 degrees things were a little cold! I finished a 3 mile run, 10 mile bike, and 1/4 mile swim in 1 hour 31 minutes! Pretty happy I finished at all!!

Me at the pre-race meeting, too scared to smile!

Just about to finish my 3 mile run!

Just finishing my 10 mile bike ride!

2008-11-04T20:14:00.005-07:00

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
From Elaine, Dwight, a princess-fairy, a rockclimber, and a bag of jelly bellys!

2008-11-01T10:38:00.004-06:00

A before picture of the roof above the upstairs bedrooms and a picture in the process, stripped down to the 2 by 8's.

I wanna have fun!

2008-10-24T11:15:00.002-06:00

Artist Site

Work Week Continues

2008-10-20T09:37:00.002-06:00

After grossly underestimating the amount of time it would take to rip off the old roof; work week lives on!! Twenty-seven hours and counting for Jake and I, plus countless hours provided by our friends and families!!! If we work on shingling tonight from 5:15pm to 9:00PM and Tuesday night from 5:15pm to 9:00pm hopefully that should be enough to get this thing done! My body can't take much more roofing, Sunday my hands were so swollen I couldn't wear rings!! Pictures to come when we finally finish and get time to post them!

Work Week

2008-10-14T11:17:00.000-06:00

I am calling this week WORK WEEK! It runs Saturday, October 12 through Sunday, October 19. Last Saturday we built a vinyl fence, which turned out beautifully! Then Monday night we tore down our shed that sits at the back of our carport. Wednesday we are tearing out the concrete on our driveway/carport. Friday we are tearing down the jungle that is our backyard and cleaning it up and also buying shingles and setting them up to be used. Then Saturday we are reshingling the roof!! What an exciting week!!

2008-10-09T16:20:00.000-06:00

2008-10-08T20:52:00.000-06:00

Seattle was tons of fun! Pretty sure we walked 20 miles!

2008-10-01T16:43:00.000-06:00

SEA ON MY WAY!!!

2008-09-24T12:38:00.001-06:00

Gold's

2008-09-17T15:46:00.000-06:00

Working full time and having a life and trying to train for a triathlon (see my older post about doing a triathlon in November) don't exactly mesh. So my co-worker and I have taken to going to the gym two days a week on our lunch break. At first I thought it was ridiculous and gross. However it is awesome! Where has this idea been all my life? We have a snack before we leave and change clothes at work and with the Gold's being 7-9 minutes away we essentially have a 40-45 minute workout! We don't do anything too overly exertive or sweaty just ride the bike for 15 minutes and then lift weights, do crunches, stretch, and in general just bask in the fact that we aren't at work. It's really great, it gives me an excuse to lift weights (which I normally never do). But now that Biggest Loser has started I am even more gung-ho into exercising. Before I hurt my ankle (March 2008) I was running 10+ miles a week and I would love to get back up to that!

Rock Climbing

2008-09-14T18:22:00.000-06:00

A couple of weeks ago Jake bought me a rock climbing harness that was such a good deal on sale so we could go rock climbing together. The first time I tried to belay him down, this was a test run mind you-he was only 6 feet off the ground, I got yanked into the rock and scuffed up!!! He was scared I was going to drop him and frankly so was I. But I got it together and we had fun. I even completed a 5.6!

2008-09-14T18:19:00.001-06:00

For Monica's birthday we watched
Kaydince! And College Football!

Sept 11

2008-09-11T11:37:00.000-06:00

It's September 11th and I feel very disconnected from everything going on in NYC. It's hard to imagine what those people were and still are going through when I am so far away. I really want to visit New York sometime soon (never been always wanted to go). It is a very sad thing that we are being attacked because of our freedoms.

Adventure is our collective middle name!

2008-08-27T11:24:00.000-06:00

This summer I made a list of fun things to do because I didn't want the summer to just fly by. The list included things like float the Provo River, go camping at Mirror Lake, go hiking, etc. So most of the list got done and now I have a new item for my fall list, do a triathlon!!!! YAY! We are very excited! I have issues with riding bikes-boring and my bum hurts! And Jake has issues with swimming, he just can't swim. Which is sad bc I love swimming and have been in water every summer for most of my life. So we each have areas we need to work on but we are planning on doing the T3 Turkey Triathlon on November 8th. It's all very exciting, more details to come.

2008-08-21T09:33:00.000-06:00

It's Jake's BIRTHDAY!!! The big 2-4!!! Is it time for a quarter life crisis yet? It sure is, for both of us! Maybe a trip around the world? Yeah that sounds nice!!

Australia

2008-08-14T10:25:00.000-06:00

I have been researching visas and requirements for different countries so we can have an idea of what we are doing when we leave Taiwan and I think we will go to Australia!! We want to visit Japan, Hong Kong, Bangkok, and Bali after/during our stay in Taiwan. But once we leave we are probably going to need some refueling time/money making time and Australia seems like just the place. First of all we speak the language so we could get real jobs and make real money and Australia is awesome! All we have to do is get work visas three months before our proposed move. I have looked to see how much housing costs and what jobs pay and it's pretty comparable to here so...Australia here we come (in 18 months!!).

Kids

2008-08-14T09:54:00.001-06:00

Won't Jake and I be great with kids?!?!

2008-08-12T09:11:00.000-06:00

Sugarland Wisdom

2008-08-08T11:28:00.001-06:00

"I've got my whole life to change the world and climb the ladder!"

We're moving to China and we're not coming back!

2008-08-04T16:04:00.000-06:00

The awesome folks at ILP have accepted Jake and I to teach english to children in Taiwan. So technically I guess we are moving to Taiwan a republic of China. We got our pre-acceptance letters this week, but the actual school in Taiwan has to approve us too. So we have a bunch of paperwork in our future and a video of each of us interacting with kids.
Taiwan is our jumping off point to the rest of the world! Awesomely enough the program pays for our airfare to/from Taiwan so that's great. While living in Taiwan we plan to take a few mini vacations to Hong Kong, Bangkok, and maybe Tokyo and Bali. After that the world is ours! We will let the wind take us wherever. Mostly it will take us to hostiles and WWOOFer farms. We just want to be hippies for awhile and not worry about too many things, just see the world!

Can a body be one big bruise?

2008-07-24T16:03:00.001-06:00

This past weekend we floated the Provo River with a couple of our friends. It costs $10 per person to rent a tube and life jacket, so someone I work with suggested we buy our own tubes. Great idea right? We bought some tubes from Big Lots that did not have holes in the middle, big mistake.

The first 5 minutes were nice and relaxing, even though the water was freezing we dealt with that. But when we had to manuever under a bridge and then immediately under a railroad bridge things got a bit sticky. I ended up being raked over rocks for a couple of hundred feet, my shoes and tube sent flying. The river's current was too strong for me to stand up and too shallow for me to swim so I was screaming (I thought I was screaming) "Jake." However, Jake says all he heard were gasping noises. (this was probably the second coldest I have ever been in my life, so it makes sense)

After living through that we were tipped another time by fast moving water (we determined it was our tubes that had a too high of center of gravity that were ultimately to blame) and did not recover from this one. Jake's tube was lost and so was Jake! I grasped my tube (bruising my finger tips, the very tips!!) and had to hold on for deal life and again I was dragged across rocks and sticks! Finally the other girl we were with helped me get out and Jake caught up. But we were left with only 3 tubes so the boys rode to the bottom to get the care while the two of us waited on the edge of the river. Two hours later, bruised and broken they picked us up and we all went back to their house barefoot, starving, and exhausted.

The first step is the hardest

2008-07-16T21:17:00.000-06:00

Step one to our dream of traveling the world, stop buying stuff! Consumerism is my new enemy, I had to give about 10 pairs of shoes to DI last week just to make some room in the closet. But today I sold Jake's bike, his beloved bike. A bike that he bought 4 years ago and used a total of 3 times! Consumerism at its finest. (You would think working in adverting would keep me from falling prey to it, but nope I buy uneccesary stuff as much as the next person.)

Traveling the world obviously does not lend itself to having a lot of stuff. So pondering this fact I have realized I don't want STUFF, I want experiences and memories. Just thinking about traveling the world makes me happy so thinking about preparing to travel the world makes me happy too. And if that includes selling everything I own and living out of a back pack, cool! If it includes awesome countries I've never seen and exciting adventure sign me up.

Look ma I have a blog!

2008-07-09T14:50:00.000-06:00

We're Jake and Ariel, two twenty-somethings that have already become bored with our corporate lifestyles, we want something more! That's why we have decided to become nomads, traveling the world to see what's out there. Our story begins about a year before our world travels is set to begin so stay tuned as we make it happen...